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Sunday, November 21, 2010

Getting personal; or, i can haz sparkles

Sometimes I'm not sure what I should or shouldn't be posting up here. Ostensibly, this is a knitting/crafting blog, but since I have infrequent FOs, I turn to other things. Right now things are happening in my life, and I've decided to talk about them. Warning: no crafty goodness ahead, only personal life stuff.

Here it goes.

I finally have a job interview after months of applications. Yes! I'll try not to mess up.

Also, Prince William stole my thunder. Which is fine, you know, since I never wanted thunder in the first place.

On bonfire night (November 5th), our 4th anniversary, the boyfriend and I got engaged. I'm slowly getting used to referring to him as my fiancé, instead of boyfriend, but I still slip up. I didn't expect to get engaged this year, nor did I expect to wear an engagement ring, since I've never been a ring-wearer. It was important to my fiancé that I get an engagement ring, and he really wanted to buy one for me, so I agreed; I asked, but he didn't want one for himself.

Shopping for an engagement ring was possibly the most awkward shopping experience of my life. That's saying something, since I am not a very good shopper at the best of times. So much shiny/sparkly/expensive madness. For someone who says "ooooh shiny" relatively frequently, I'm not actually that attracted to the bling, so I spent quite a while trying to get my head around what I was seeing and why it depressed me when I should have been excited.

It took me a while to be able to express it, but nothing I saw at first was at all "me." I've always felt diamonds are a bit overrated. No offence to those that love them, but they aren't my style at all. Diamonds are such a big part of the wedding industry culture, and that's unfortunate. I tried on solitaire after solitaire at the urging of salespeople and my fiancé, who I think was a little dismayed at my attitude at first. I just couldn't see myself wearing them. He was getting stressed out that the process was taking a long time - he thought it would be a matter of in and out super quickly. I was getting stressed that my style isn't represented in the typical jewelry store offerings.

I like colour. I thought my ideal ring, if I had one at all, would have a coloured stone and no diamonds. Such things don't exist at High Street shops, so we compromised. I know there are many independent jewelry designers who produce non-traditional engagement rings, and after our first day of looking I sought some out, but in then end it was easier, more affordable, less stressful, and more satisfying to both of us to go with a compromise. Since I wasn't even sure about having an engagement ring to begin with, it didn't make sense to me to break the bank for one, and go through a long, drawn-out, stressful process to get it.

So, my ring has a coloured stone: tanzanite, a lovely periwinkle blue/purple oval that sparkles but is small and subtle. It also has two teeny diamonds that I think are unnecessary, but I don't mind them so much. I think it's pretty. I'm happy and excited about it. I've only had it a few days, and I like it even more the more I wear it. Still, part of me wishes that the industry I unwittingly encountered would recognize that rings can still be special even if they don't have diamonds.

6 comments:

So true! I did not pick mine out, the Hubs did. It is a diamond and I like it, but like you, I prefer other stones. It is also the only ring I wear, other than my wedding band and they are a nestled set....

Congratulations! Love your choice of ring and I liked reading about your attitude towards the whole process. My boyfriend and I are headed towards the same route, and I think we've discussed that we either both get engagement rings, or neither of us do. Ideally, I'd be going to indie jewellery shops too, or just ordering off Etsy.

Congrats on your engagement I love your ring. I am not a big fan of diamonds & huge stones in rings. Me & Mk have had many conversations about what we do and don't want in rings. Yours is just perfect.